A research team at CNU is attracting interest by announcing research results that proved obesity interferes with memory formation.
The research team of the CNU College of Medicine, led by Professor Song Ju-hyun (Department of Anatomy) and Kim Young-kuk (Department of Biochemistry) found that obesity significantly increased a specific circular RNA (circTshz2-2) in the brain, and this circular RNA suppressed the expression of nerve cell’s growth factor (BDNF). It was confirmed for the first time through circular RNA removal and overexpression experiments that obesity inhibits memory formation as well as regulation of the neuronal cell cycle and neuronal network.
This finding not only suggests a new perspective that obesity-induced memory loss is related to neuronal cell cycle regulation but also is highly evaluated for discovering a new circular RNA that can link the correlation between the two diseases.
In addition, the results of this study were published in the online edition of the world-renowned scientific journal Molecular Psychiatry (impact factor: 15.992, top 2.015% in neuroscience) on September 24.
Obesity appears as symptoms such as increased body fat mass and abdominal obesity and is known to be exacerbated by lack of exercise and intake of food which contains high fat.
The research team said, "This is a study that reveals the neuronal cell cycle and damage mechanisms in memory loss caused by obesity. It is an important finding to develop ways to prevent memory loss in patients with this metabolic syndrome. In order to further develop treatment methods, research on the functions of non-coding RNAs such as circular RNAs should be continued.”
The first author of this study is Dr. Yoon Kwang-ho (CNU College of Medicine, BK21 Stage 4 Glocal Future Medical Science Talent Nurturing Education Research Group), and the research was supported by three research grant programs, National Research Foundation of Korea's Young Researcher Program, Basic Research Support Program, and Mid-Career Researcher Program.
